Beauty of a butterfly...

This beauty sat nice and posed for me. It is either a Diane Fritillary or a Spicebush Swallowtail.

Poppies reaching for the sky.

Purple Spiderwort winter sown for this season.

Moss Rose, what a truly pretty color. Direct sown this spring.

Queen Anne's Lace. It is said that Queen Anne was tatting some lace and pricked her finger. A single drop of blood fell into the center of her lace, giving this flower its name.

Teasel, growing wild on our lane.

Zinnia opening up.

In no particular order...

Giant Sunflower

Sunflower against the evening sky

Smooth Pumpkin

Wrinkled Pumpkin

Northwest corner of house

Ironweed

Naked Ladies aka Resurrection Lilies

Naked Ladies aka Resurrection Lilies

Brick path to side of garage

Great Blue Lobelia

Endless Summer Hydrangea

4 O'Clocks, Anise Hyssop, Autumn Joy Sedum

Ceratostigma aka Hardy Plumbago

Ceratostigma aka Hardy Plumbago

I haven't been awol...I've been watering

Endless Summer Hydrangea

It has been such a dry, dry season. I am very thankful that we had so much rain this past winter. Seems as if there is always some area that needs water. I have been collecting rain water and use that as much as possible.

My Hydrangea is blooming and I hope next year it grows to be even more beautiful. I have read that some people have had trouble with the Endless Summer and I hope that I won't be one of them.

Poppies direct sowed this spring are starting to bloom, red ones, yellow ones, lilac, orange- all colors of the rainbow. I love poppies. So spring-like and delicate looking.

Clematis Multi-Blue

Clematis have been blooming like crazy. Multi-blue is almost done, and also H.F. Young, which I didn't post a picture of. Lots of purple!

Clematis Nelly Moser

One of my oldest clematis is Nelly Moser. I dug this up from my mom's yard 6 or 7 years ago and planted it at my old place, then transplanted it here a year ago. Last summer I only had one or to blooms, but this year has been much better. I imagine next year it will fill the arch it is on.

My coneflowers are doing well. These I received from a neighbor last fall. I have 4 plants blooming and the color really stands out.

Dianthus Siberian Blues

Siberian Blues were planted this spring, I received them in a plant trade. Nice bright color and a strong bloomer.

Teddy Bear Sunflower

Teddy Bear Sunflower survived the squirrels this spring, only one of a dozen or so planted after winter sowing. This plant has 4 flower buds, so it is making up for my loss. It is a short plant, only 12 or 18 inches tall.

Plants started from seed

A sampling of some of the plants that I started by seed this year. Some were winter sowed and some direct sowed.

Candy Lily

Purple Majesty Millet

Purple Spiderwort

Moss Rose

Four O'Clock

Baptisia

Monarda "Prairie Night"

I've been to the flea market again

And got this nifty little 2 piece fountain statue for $3. I didn't have to haggle or try to talk her down. It is very heavy.
I also got 2 Hosta "Great Expectations" for $6. each. Nice sized plants that I took home and planted. I then decided that they were such nice sized plants that I dug them back up and split them, then planted 4!

"Great Expectations" is florescent green with blue-green edging. Very bright!

I picked up 2 6-packs at the grocery last week, of Coleus. They were $1. each. The purple veining in them is great.
I finally got an "Endless Summer" Hydrangea. It blooms on both old and new wood all summer long! I got this at Home Depot while buying a chainsaw a few days ago. I have resisted and resisted and couldn't resist them any longer. It is small now, but just wait until next year!

All of these new shade plants forced me to finally break down and revamp the Maple bed out front. It is a large bed and had a few Hosta and very little else. So I added bunches of purple flowering Toad Lilies, Liriope Muscari, Spider Plants (the houseplant variety), additional varigated Hostas, and a bird bath. I also moved an Astilbe that was being smothered by a Hosta.
It turned out quite nice, although it still needs mulch.



I also added an Ostrich Fern and some Toad Lilies to this section of sidewalk bed. Once grown full sized, this will bring a lot of texture to the shade.


Also in the shade is this pot of Japanese Knotwood. For many years my mother and I thought it was a variety of bamboo, but after doing some research I found that it isn't. It gets red flowers right before the first frost. It is doing nicely here in the shade, although it is a sun lover.
One last shade picture for this post. Chris and I picked up this iron cat made of nails and springs a few years ago at an art festival. It too is in the big Maple bed sitting in front of one my Poinsettia's. It isn't real noticeable due to the rust blending in with the mulch, but it is always fun for the kids to find.

Do you know any rain chants???

Hot, dry weather loving Daylily by gazing ball

The smell of rain is in the air...as it has been frequently, I can only hope that we will actually get some this time. We have had exactly 3/4 of an inch of rain since the beginning of May! There is an 80% chance that we will get some today according to our meteorologist on the news last night. An 80% chance is pretty good, but we have seen it rain a half mile down the road from us in both directions and remained dry here.

Plants that are established aren't the problem, as I try to maintain a lot of plants that can tolerate the hot dryness. It is all of the new things, the seedlings and little plants that I winter sowed. I hate to water! I hate dragging hoses around everywhere and I hate coiling them back up even more (ask my husband-he's always asking me if I'm done with the hoses).

I have lost a lot of plants so far this dry spring, but thank goodness for the mass amounts I started with, I still have lots to look forward to.

Dry weather isn't the only problem, with the grasses and wild areas so dry and crispy, all the woodland creatures are looking for nourishment elsewhere-mainly in my gardens! I am down to two sunflower plants, and one of those is partially eaten. Baptisia and Four O'Clocks seem to be a favorite of smaller creatures, but luckily many of those are hanging in there.

Groundhog looking for food. Our younger son saw one when we first moved in, and that city slicker thought they were beavers!

I do have Jackmanii blooming, just starting. It is going to be really beautiful in the next couple of days, especially if we really do get rain today. HF Young has grown 3/4 of the way up the rustic arch I put up last year and reloaded with blooms. It too is going to be gorgeous.

Isn't this Jackmanii beautiful?

Annabelle Hydrangeas are starting to bloom. I am not a white flower kinda gal, but these are nice because many of the surrounding plants aren't quite at their bloom times yet. A flower is a flower!

Annabelle Hydrangea

Scabiosa that I dug up from my MIL house last year is getting ready to open. I love this beautiful purple flower and (like always) can't wait to see how big and thick it will be next year.

Scabiosa soon to bloom

I finally got around to putting out one of the signs that I made over the winter. It took quite a few pounds from the hammer to get it into the hard, dry ground. Notice, I really do have weeds there, lol!!


I took the blade off of my son's broken fan before tossing into the trash and made this little windmill out of it. It adds a lot of flash out there when it gets spinning away.
Veronica Incanata is blooming. I got this pretty plant in a trade this spring and it is doing well! I of course like that the flower is purple the best!

Veronica Incanata

Yucca and ditch lilies are looking quite spectacular together down at the spillway. I never got a chance to see them bloom last year. I really like the brightness of them together. They are putting on quite a show!

Yucca and Daylily